The Rebel Flagship
The Rebel Flagship is the most powerful vessel in the Rebel Fleet, and serves as the game's final boss in The Last Stand sector. You start in a sector with multiple systems being taken over by the rebels. Jumping to these starts a battle with a tough Rebel Elite ship. In addition, the silhouette of the Rebel Flagship is visible hovering around a system. Every couple of turns, it will jump closer to the Federation base, and if it gets too close, the game will end. Your goal is to make it to the Flagship, and fight through its three stages to destroy it, and end the Rebel advance. With each stage that you beat the rebel flagship will jump away, closer to the fleet. This means that if he is only 1 jump away from the fleet but you have only knocked him down to round 2 you will not be able to defeat him before he reaches the federation base. However, if you knock him down to stage 2 and he is jumping to your base the same time as you are, you are still able to fight him. If you Faster Than Light out of the battle though, you will lose. In each stage of the fight the boss has a different Special Ability. 1st Stage Weapons Each weapon has its own compartment, meaning if you are boarding the ship, you will have to do so four times, or use missiles. *Triple Ion Cannon *Heavy Burst Laser *Triple Leto Missile Launcher *Big Beam Weapon (2 damage) Systems *Drones (unused during stage) *Teleporter (unused during stage) *Stealth *Shields (4) *Medbay *Door Control *Oxygen Control *Engine *Cockpit *Sensors Special Ability *Ability to cloak for 10 seconds. (Level 2 Cloak) 2nd Stage The boss now uses a Defense Drone I as well as an Anti-Ship I and a Beam Drone I. Weapons *Heavy Burst Laser *Triple Leto Missile Launcher *Big Beam Weapon (2 damage) Systems *Drones *Teleporter (Unused During Stage) *Shields (4) *Medbay *Oxygen Control *Engine *Cockpit *Sensors Special Ability *Unleashes 10? extra drones for around 5-10 seconds mostly beam drones. *Launches Boarding Drones onto your ship Final Stage The boss now has a Zoltan shield that absorbs more damage than a regular Zoltan shield. Weapons *Heavy Burst Laser *Triple Leto Missile Launcher Systems *Teleporter *Shields (4) *Super Zoltan Shield (12 bars) *Medbay *Oxygen Control *Engine *Cockpit Special Ability *It can either shoot around 6 laser shots, or bring its Zoltan shield back online. If any of your crew are on board when the Zoltan shield comes back on they will be stuck and can't be teleported back. Victory! Finally, after three of the toughest fights in the game the Rebel Flagship has been destroyed! After this long struggle the victory screen appears. It has the name of your ship as well as the names of every crew member that survived the encounter. You will also have the the words "Victory" if your ship is a new high score. Recommended Equipment FTL is not as strict with the equipment required for beating the last boss as often in roguelikes, but it doesn't change that when you get to the Rebel Flagship, there's two things you must do, in order: *Not die, and minimize the risk of dying *Destroy the Flagship, even if it takes a long time These upgrades help you to fight the last boss while minimising any kind of risk: *As many Shields levels as possible (at least 3) *As many Engine levels as possible (at the very least 4) *As many weapons levels as possible (depends on your weapons) Shields and Engine are necessary for avoiding hull damage. Weapons are necessary so that you may destroy his triple Leto missile launcher early. Extra unused levels are useful, since if you're hit by an (un)lucky missile early on, your ship doesn't become useless instantaneouly. Max shields + Max engines + max pilot and engine skills provide you with enough resilience and evasion to disconsider everything the Rebel Flagship can throw at you, except for the missile launcher and boarding drones. *At least Level 2 Doors *Level 3 Guiding subsystem Level 2 Doors helps against fires and boarding drones. Level 3 Guiding means you can take a missile to the pilot's room and not lose the game instantaneously (you can't jump away without guiding systems). *Some way to deal with his missile launcher's reliable damage This is the key point, and can be done in many ways. Most of the Flagship's weapons are almost useless when you have a strong shield and high evasion rates, except for the missiles. If they hit your shields, weapons, engine, or pilot systems, and you don't have redundancy, the best strategy is to jump out ASAP. *Enough combat power to deal with boarding drones Self-explanatory *Some way to deal damage to the Flagship through its shields. Otherwise you can't win. The rest is optional, and can trade with the above recommendations if you are willing to take minor risks: *Cloaking :pros: can be activated as the flagship fires missiles or activates superweapons to dodge them. Gives time to perform repairs, so that you don't need redundant levels for damage buffer. :cons: expensive system, and cloaking cooldown means you will be vulnerable every other volley. *Boarding :pros: sure way to disable key systems of the flagship. For example, missiles, or even guiding systems, so that your weapons hit with 100% accuracy. :cons: you won't be able to use the boarding crew for repairs, and you can't fire weapons at a particular system you're occupying. *Drones :pros: defense drone blocks missiles, allows you to spend resources to perform various tasks well. :cons: requires a lot of energy and scrap (drone parts could be sold otherwise). Limited resources. Defence drones can miss as well. Augmentations Some Augmentations are not as useful end game as others. Consider swapping out Augmentations, like Drone Recovery Arm, in Sector 6, 7 and 8 for more offensive/defensive Augmentations, like Automated Reloader or Shield charge booster, while you have the chance. Possible Strategies (Easy Difficulty) *If you are using the Federation Cruiser, you will need to upgrade your artillery beam; at level 4 this beam is devastating as it ignores all shields and can be recharged quickly. *Pick up two laser weapons at least, as well as a missile/bomb based weapon, preferably Pegasus (two missiles can be useful in later stages). *Make sure you have the maximum amount of crew that you can hold and you are ready to fight the final boss. *Don't delay in engaging the flagship; although there are some profitable encounters on the last map, taking too much time lowers the number of repair spots and time available to visit them. Since you have to fight three stages you can't wait until the last second. *'IMPORTANT: '''Do NOT kill all of the crew members, only those on the main guns. If you do kill all of the crew an aggressive AI takes over and periodicaly repairs all of the systems that are damaged (similar to the Auto-Scouts except faster). A different approach to this is to leave the gunner just to the left of the cockpit alive, and kill the entire crew before going to the next phase. This makes taking out the drone bay and shields practically a joke as your crew will go unchallenged into every room after the first stage. DO NOT attempt this without first destroying their (level 3) med bay unless using crystal crewmembers and their lockdown ability. *'IMPORTANT: 'It is '''important '''to note though if you do manage to kill the crew it does make the last stage of the boss much easier to deal with as you only need to worry about the super weapon. As for the Aggressive AI, it is easy to overcome at this stage with fire weapons as the damage from the flames is more than the AI's repairing rate, and fire also has a chance to spread causing futher damage to the ship without having to deal with the shields. Though until their shields are down beam weapons, with the exception of the Federation Cruiser's artillery beam, are useless and with the crew dead you're free to target the shields with Bombs and Missiles. *In the first stage, teleport two crewmen onto the weapon directly to the right of the cockpit. This will take out his triple Leto missile launcher which is by far the most dangerous of his weapons. Then proceed to take out every other weapon one by one. Once you have taken down all of the weapons power down the teleporter as you won't be using it until the next round. *While your away teams are doing this you can start shooting for the shields; however, with a massive 4 points of shielding and a decent chance of dodging your attacks he is a tough nut to crack. If you have missile weapons you can easily bypass the shields and free up your laser weapons to tear him apart. *Once you have defeated him for the first time you should try and visit a repair station to heal your ship. If a repair station is unavailable, you can use a hull repair drone to fully heal. It doesn't even need to be active during combat; just swap it in after you've beaten a boss stage and use it at your leasure. *In the second round it is vital that you take out the weapons at the start again. His super attack is a deadly swarm of Attack Drones that can tear apart any unshielded vessel in the 5-10 second period in which they remain on-screen. However, with his weapons out of the picture, level 3 shields should be enough to survive. Before his weapons are down you can cloak to avoid the drone swarm - note that if you allow a L3 cloak to run its full length, it will recharge ''too slowly to avoid every wave. Decloak early, use Level 1 Cloaking or take down the weapons. Then you will have to take out either his shields or his drone control, as his Defense Drone I will take out any missiles that you shoot at him this round (except for the Pegasus' 2-missile firing system). *Now that you have reached the final round, this is where things get tricky. First of all he has a Zoltan Shield which absorbs 12 points of damage AND regenerates when it doesn't take damage, so you will need to take it out before you can teleport in and take out the weapons. After the weapons have been taken care of you will need to take it out as quickly as possible; power down the teleporter and pour everything you have into the engines so that you can dodge his super attack. Alternatively, one can use a well-timed Level 1 cloak to dodge the super attack. This super attack shoots around 5-10 Heavy Burst Lasers and is charged by the teleporter platform - this means that even if all of the weapons are offline you can still be hit by this. Take out his shields as fast as possible then aim for the teleporter to delay the next super weapon shot. *Congratulations! You have beaten the Rebel Flagship! Possible Strategies (Normal Difficulty) *Not everything is going to be handed to you on a silver platter. One thing I can't stress enough is you have to adapt to a lot of situations in the game in order to win. You can beat the boss without maxed out weapons, but all other systems must be adequately upgraded, or you won't stand a chance. Evasion is just as important as shields and weapon control, just not in early game. Also, having a weapon that can bypass shields (I.E Missiles, bombs, Artillery Beam) will be incredibly useful, but not mandatory. It would be wise to have at least enough firepower (excluding weapons that bypass shields) to take out 4 shields AND hit a room at least once. Drones, especially the defense drone, will be incredibly helpful as well. *During the first stage of the boss fight, usually your main priority are the weapons, since they cannot be repaired if you kill the crew manning them (unless you kill off all of the crew/ship teleports away). Go for the triple missile launcher first if you don't have any defense drones, otherwise take out the triple ion blast. If you're not doing damage fast enough, then it might be a good idea to focus fire their shields, because if you have low DPS then you will accumulate more damage than if you target their weapons first instead of their shields. If you have missiles/bombs, use those to take out the shields, then use your lasers to take out the weapons. *During the second stage, he loses his cloaking and his ion blast, but starts using his (annoying) drones. He also has a special move, which releases 5-10 drones and attacks you. Disabling his drone control will not nullify his power surge, but they will deactivate any other drones, particularly useful when the flagship has a defense drone. The Flagship might also release boarding drones. They will harass your crew non-stop, since you can't "guide" them to your medbay by opening all the doors except some. However, after a large number of defense drones, the flagship will eventually stop launching them (they send around 15-20 before stopping) You want to target either the triple missile launcher, or their drone system. I recommend their drone system, because they are the most annoying factor in this stage of the boss fight. If you are getting hit too much, consider raising your evasion more, or your shields. *Finally, the third stage, and in my opinion, the easiest. That is, if you have good shields and evasion. The Flagship starts off with an enhanced super shield, taking more hits than a regular super shield would. In addition, his power surge shoots 5-15(?) lasers at once, OR fully recharges his super shield. He also only has his triple heavy laser, and his triple missile launcher as weapons. This is a problem unless you have a weapon pre-ingniter because he can get a few shots off before you even take down the super shield, and possibly get a power surge off before you do any real damage. If you have good evasion (like 50%+), and 3+ shields, the power surge should only do a little amount of damage, if any damage at all. The flagship will also start using it's teleporter. Thankfully, they can be "guided" to your medbay. Focus fire their shields or their weapons. Also aim for their teleporter, so they will stop kamikaze-ing all of their crew members. *Congratulations! If you have beaten the Flagship then give yourself a pat on the back, because Normal difficulty doesn't mess around. These tips are just guidelines, because situations will vary depending on the circumstances. Like I said, adaptability is key. Making the right decisions will ultimately win you the game.